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In Connection With The De Willoughby Claim is one of the most batshit Hodgson Burnett books I've ever read. It's also one of the most cringe-inducing.
So, Tom De Willoughby is an indolent postmaster and shopkeeper in a small town, estranged from his more prominent family in another city because he never found a career appropriate to a gentleman. He did have a little medical training, which comes in handy when a strange couple shows up in town and the woman dies after giving birth. The man leaves town after the woman's burial, and Tom adopts the baby girl, later named Sheba.
The slow reveal of the identity of Sheba's parents is one running plot thread. About halfway through, another plot thread related to the book title comes in, where Tom and his nephew Rupert file a claim over some family land that was damaged during the recent war.
You see, the small town where Tom lives is in North Carolina, the city where his estranged family lived is in South Carolina, and the book is set over about 1850-1870.
Think about how Hodgson Burnett handles lower-class characters in her British-set stories. Now imagine that applied to American slavery and post-Emancipation. Yeah. Uncle Matt, the freedman formerly held by Rupert's father and later working as Rupert's servant, could easily be the old British family retainer that stays with the scion of the house when the family has fallen on ruin, but with the slavery context added, and with no characters who are former slaves going "shaking the dust of this plantation off my feet so hard you'd think the Dust Bowl was two generations early" to balance him out, yeah. Cringe. (Also, Uncle Matt describing himself with the n-word? More cringe.)
There is plenty of interesting batshit story in this book, plus some scathing commentary on how women receive social consequences for out-of-wedlock pregnancy that men avoid, and a sharply realistic look at the problems Tom and Rupert run into when trying to get reparations for their land. (Tom's father/Rupert's grandfather was a Union supporter, so a little cringe was averted.) If you're a Hodgson Burnett fan, you may find it worth reading. But go in prepared.
So, Tom De Willoughby is an indolent postmaster and shopkeeper in a small town, estranged from his more prominent family in another city because he never found a career appropriate to a gentleman. He did have a little medical training, which comes in handy when a strange couple shows up in town and the woman dies after giving birth. The man leaves town after the woman's burial, and Tom adopts the baby girl, later named Sheba.
The slow reveal of the identity of Sheba's parents is one running plot thread. About halfway through, another plot thread related to the book title comes in, where Tom and his nephew Rupert file a claim over some family land that was damaged during the recent war.
You see, the small town where Tom lives is in North Carolina, the city where his estranged family lived is in South Carolina, and the book is set over about 1850-1870.
Think about how Hodgson Burnett handles lower-class characters in her British-set stories. Now imagine that applied to American slavery and post-Emancipation. Yeah. Uncle Matt, the freedman formerly held by Rupert's father and later working as Rupert's servant, could easily be the old British family retainer that stays with the scion of the house when the family has fallen on ruin, but with the slavery context added, and with no characters who are former slaves going "shaking the dust of this plantation off my feet so hard you'd think the Dust Bowl was two generations early" to balance him out, yeah. Cringe. (Also, Uncle Matt describing himself with the n-word? More cringe.)
There is plenty of interesting batshit story in this book, plus some scathing commentary on how women receive social consequences for out-of-wedlock pregnancy that men avoid, and a sharply realistic look at the problems Tom and Rupert run into when trying to get reparations for their land. (Tom's father/Rupert's grandfather was a Union supporter, so a little cringe was averted.) If you're a Hodgson Burnett fan, you may find it worth reading. But go in prepared.